AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is an attempt to predict environmental conditions, in the form of seasonal weather and related factors in Florida, a year in advance. I have two years of personal experience to go by, but that's probably no more reliable than an Old Farmer's Almanac long-range forecast. We've been fleeing the New England cold … Continue reading A Winter 2025 Vacation Prediction
Divination
Abundance or Absence by Card Type: Feast or Famine in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Judging from the amount of dialogue about it on the internet tarot sites, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the consequences of receiving multiple cards of the same type (number, suit, rank, etc) in a spread. Many of the key historical figures in the tarot world (Waite, Crowley, Mathers and others) … Continue reading Abundance or Absence by Card Type: Feast or Famine in Tarot Reading
Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently came across an opinion in the tarot literature that a reversed court card in a spread will typically highlight the negative character traits of an individual when that card stands for another person who is involved in the situation and not a psychological or universal/spiritual concept. Given my nuanced approach to … Continue reading Reversed Court Cards: Perverse or Preoccupied?
“Transparent Luminosity” in Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Last night I dreamed that I was discussing with someone the unforgiving nature of watercolor painting, and when I awoke I drew parallels between that and the conduct of a tarot reading. I've had some formal training in the art of watercolor, and one thing that stuck with me is that, unlike tempera … Continue reading “Transparent Luminosity” in Tarot Reading
The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another of my random, intermittent forays into the Minor Arcana of the Thoth deck, which has been my steadfast companion in the study and practice of tarot for over five decades. (See my Tarot 101 series of posts for a more systematic overview.) Think what you will of Crowley, his deck … Continue reading The Fives and the Inverted Pentagram: The Abrogation of Spirit
The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I may regret it from the standpoint of intellectual overload (and so might my readers), I've just begun digesting (you don't idly graze these things) Ronald Decker's scholarly study of occult tarot history, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabalah, in the introduction to which he acknowledges that he … Continue reading The Polysemous Tarot: A Symphony of Meanings
Further Thoughts on Rational Journaling
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several times over the last five decades, I've started and stopped recording my tarot observations and reading results in a journal because I tend to overthink and consequently overwrite, then I never go back to look at any of it. Here is another way to tackle it. It's one of tarot teaching's accepted … Continue reading Further Thoughts on Rational Journaling
“Mystic Mercury” and the Lenormand Deck
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've made a conscious habit of avoiding all esoteric correspondences (astrology, occult number theory, etc) when using the Lenormand cards for divination. But I recently came across an interesting coincidence. On the Hermetic Tree of Life, the planet Mercury corresponds to the number 8 and its "mystic number" is 36, which is achieved … Continue reading “Mystic Mercury” and the Lenormand Deck
Structured Intuition
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Buried in the strident chorus of "Just go with what you feel!" and "You don't have to read books!" emitted in self-righteous certitude by a significant percentage of 21st-Century tarot "influencers," an occasional quiet voice is raised in defense of developing a method of reading the cards that is both rational and instinctual. … Continue reading Structured Intuition
The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I sometimes encounter people online who will only read a random cluster of cards with no formal spread positions. I've created a few layouts that embrace that kind of neutrality and here is the latest one, although it goes from scattered to structured in three operations. It owes its premise to two-thirds of … Continue reading The “Scattershot” Spread: Shotgunning the Tarot Reading
